good doggie!

[Max Habibi]

I have a feeling my puppy's not going to be doing any of this

The researchers found that Rico knows the names of dozens of play toys and can find the one called for by his owner. That is a vocabulary size about the same as apes, dolphins and parrots trained to understand words, the researchers say.


Rico can even take the next step, figuring out what a new word means.


The researchers put several known toys in a room along with one that Rico had not seen before. From a different room, Rico's owner asked him to fetch a toy, using a name for the toy the dog had never heard.


The border collie, a breed known primarily for its herding ability, was able to go to the room with the toys and, seven times out of 10, bring back the one he had not seen before. The dog seemingly understood that because he knew the names of all the other toys, the new one must be the one with the unfamiliar name.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040610/ap_on_sc/dog_language

[Gail Schlentz]

Originally posted by Max Habibi:

The border collie, a breed known primarily for its herding ability, was able to go to the room with the toys and, seven times out of 10, bring back the one he had not seen before.

Does what he's supposed to do 70% of the time? Better than a couple of teenagers I know...

[Ashok Mash]

Originally posted by Elaine Micheals:
Does what he's supposed to do 70% of the time? Better than a couple of teenagers I know...

He must be going like, "I see... dumb people!"
[ June 10, 2004: Message edited by: Ashok Mash ]